National News

TSA's $1B SPOT Program as Effective as Flipping a Coin

by Arden Dier, Newser Staff

(NEWSER) – Nearly $1 billion spent on a TSA behavioral screening program may have been better spent in Vegas. Started in 2007 at a cost of $200 million a year, the Screening of Passengers by Observation Techniques (SPOT) program trains officers to scan crowded airports for suspicious-looking people. There's just one problem: There's "no evidence behavior detention works," a GAO report has found, noting the results of identification from SPOT, which employs 3,000 officers across the country, are "the same as or slightly better than chance," reportsNBC News.